The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-01-17
Love Letters.

Some zone was saying the other day
that the art of writing love letters was
lost art If so, it must be that love
has gone rather out of fashion. II
seems to us that whoever loves will
naturally write an irreproachable love
letter, If he allows his pen to report
the emotions of his heart To be sure.
there are those prudent lovers who
never put anything upon paper-that
is, anything in particular exactly
because they expect to be sued for
breach of promise some day, but be.
cause it is unsafe. and letters run
great risk, pass through innumerable
hands, and pretty phrases and endear-
ments are too precious to be endanger-
ed; others regard their emotions as
too sincere and divine to be written
out, and are afraid, perhaps, that they
will SAVIOR of eXaggcration; while the
others would like to express great
deal, but their thoughts fly awkardly
from the pen, and seem TO loose all
their significance. Many who can
talk love and nonsence by the yard,
lose Their facility the instant they
touch a pen; they need the electric
presence of the object of inspiration,
the retort. the response, or they write
an ESSAY. instead of love letter; 9TH
ers, again, can produce the most gush-
ing specimens of the art, but are dumb
before the shrine. OF course the love
letter which would seem like n drop OF
distilled honey to one recipient, would
appear cold and calculated to another;
one will idealize even the baldest pos
sible expressions till they seem to shine
with the rad ance of love itself, will
say all the writer would have TO say il
he knew how; while to her neighbor
the sweetest words will not suffice TO
fill the measure of her expectations
and Imagination, since she always an
ticipates something sweeter than hui
man thought can frame. There are
those who like to read from their love
letters to curious or envious audience;
and others--a few-like Hawthorne,
who wrote to his wife: "Your letters
are too sacred to be read in the
midst of people. l never read them,"
he adds, "without first washing my
hands" One would hardly care for
them if she could not boast of their
possession and advertise it, another
feels that they are almost too personal
and dear TO mention, and learns the
contents by heart, as if they were so
many poems, as indeed they are to her
experience. The love letter must not
be too long, nor yet too short, but of
that Just measure that the reader shall
always wish there were yet little
more, if only postscript; and il should
be of that quality which suggests such
lovely and tender thoughts, and on a
second perusal one is surprised to find
that they are not expressed in so many
words. so certa was she that they
originated with the writer. The lowell
est of all love letters, however, are
those between husband and wife. AS
long rs they continue, there will be II
room for the serpent to enter. They
are the bulwark of the home and the
safety of life itself. Let them multiply
as the leaves of the forest and shine MS
the stars in the heavens. The mail
bags cannot be too heavily loaded with
such loving missives. They are the
salt of the earth. - Rose Elizabeth Clece-
land.